Australia Part 2 – Canberra – Noodles, Balloons & Bikes

8th to  13th March, 2020

Writing this on Friday, 27th March, safely home and isolated in North Cheam, UK!!

We were not quite finished with the markets of Canberra and set out for a visit to the Old Bus Depot Market for a browse and something to eat. Some interesting things for sale as you can see from the photos, along with the usual amount of homemade jewellery, clothing, paintings, second-hand books etc. All good fun – though it looks almost odd now in these times of isolation and social distancing!

Well, it was busy, busy, busy as it was the Canberra Day festivities (which seemed to last longer than a day), so we all set off one evening to the Parliamentary area for noodles and a light show, part of the Canberra Enlighten events. Oddly, I left my camera at home, so I cannot enlighten you, but the good thing was that the rain stayed away, we ate some good Asian street food and saw some interesting light shows! You will have to imagine the rest.

However, I have more than made up for it the next day, when Claire, Robin, Val and I arose very early in the dark, donned some warmer clothing and drove back to the area by the old Parliament building where there was to be a massed balloon ascent (is that the right word?). The sun was still not up when we arrived, but it was getting clearer and there was a lot of bustle and activity (and people!) and some balloons already starting to fill up ready for the off.

There was the usual variety of shapes and sizes, though the majority were of the pear drop shape (I think that is right), which I for one find strangely pleasing.

Here are some photos of a more general nature… (don’t worry, they include some balloons!)…

Now two of the main attractions were the T-Rex and the Skywhale, the latter requiring some explanation as it is definitely a little different.. Referring to my old friend Wikipedia: ‘The Skywhale is a hot air balloon designed by the sculptor Patricia Piccinini as part of a commission to mark the centenary of the city of Canberra. It was built by Cameron Balloons in Bristol, United Kingdom, and first flew in Australia in 2013. The balloon’s design received a mixed response after it was publicly unveiled in May 2013. It has since been displayed around the world, and was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia in 2019

The official website of The Skywhale describes Piccinini’s design as follows:

Wings didn’t make sense to Patricia; the creature was too big and the technical limitations of balloon design wouldn’t allow them anyway. So she took a cue from the balloon itself, and imagined that the creature might somehow secrete a lighter than air gas. In the place of wings she imagined huge udders that might contain the gas, as well as a huge bulbous body. She imagined the creature with a slightly more human face, with a calm benign expression that would inspire empathy rather than fear. Her aim was to create a being that was massive and wondrous and that exists somewhere between the impossible and the unlikely.

Right, brace yourselves…

Sadly after all the hype, neither of them actually took to the air despite a lot of hot air being blown into them, the main problem, i think, being the tail of the T Rex, that seemed to refuse to inflate (possibly because it is lower???). Indeed, the final ignominy was when it was deflated, though that did provide some great footage on the old video which I think I have managed to upload to YouTube.

T Rex attack!!

Hope that works.

Finally, a couple of random ones from the next day. They did the ascent every day and they often seem to blow over towards where Claire and co lived…

Well, that set us up for the day and we went home and had some excellent breakfast.

Our next big event was to go cycling which we all did by dint of renting a tandem for Val and me and a spare bike for Tristan, whilst Claire rode hers down from the Uni and Georgie did an amazing feat of riding from the house to the lake before then commencing our journey around said lake – with Robin in tow, literally!

The bike company met by the big lake that is at the centre of Canberra, called Lake Burley Griffin, named after Walter Burley Griffin, an American architect who, with his wife Marion Mahoney Griffin, won the competition to design Canberra when it was chosen to be the capital back in 1913. I will cover the design of what is a fairly unique city (can you have ‘fairly unique’?) in a later blog, but for now be advised that the lake was formed in 1963 with the damming of the Molonglo River. The lake is 11 kilometres long and not very deep and is essentially ornamental. Most of the principal buildings of Canberra lie on or are connected to it as you will see from one of the photos, I hope.

I have purloined a map showing the bike routes around the Lake and which also gives you a good idea of the layout of the central part of Canberra. We started with the western Loop (in blue – about 16 kms long), then did the Central loop (in orange – 4 kms), but were a bit too knackered to manage the Eastern Loop (in red – another 9 kms), not least as Georgie had to cycle all the way home – and that is uphill! Maybe next time.

Anyway, after the usual test cycle for Val and me, it was off on the cycle path that runs around the lake. First though there had to be a group photo, of course.

Naturally we had some lovely views of the lake and the surrounding buildings…

The were quite a few stops for photos, water and getting our breath back (it was not all flat!).

We managed to stop for an excellent al fresco lunch at a garden centre/restaurant en route, which had a worryingly high number of birds crying out to be photographed. A very select few….

And of course we had to see a few of these….

Amazing to see them so close to the centre of the city, but that is a bit of a hallmark of Canberra which has kept a lot of green spaces, parks and nature reserves.

A great outing with wonderful weather as usual!

Next up, Val and I ventured back to the see the rest of the National Museum of Australia, which gave me a few more opportunities to take some more photos, this time not in the rain.

This time we looked at the development of Australia post-1788, again carefully described, tiptoeing the line between the undoubted achievements and the treatment of the First Australians. Very instructional and informative. We even saw the extremely large heart of the most famous Australian (or Kiwi, depending on your point of view) racehorse ever, Phar Lap, which was nice as we had already seen his stuffed body in the museum in Melbourne. His skeleton is on display in New Zealand!

OK, that had better be enough for the time being, but there is plenty more!!